by James R. Healey, USATODAY

by James R. Healey, USATODAY

General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Thursday that she has put two GM engineers on paid leave in connection with faulty ignition switches that forced the recall of 2.62 million vehicles worldwide.

The defect is linked to 31 crashes and 12 deaths in the U.S. and one fatal crash in Canada.

It's GM's first action against employees involved in the events leading to cars being sold with switches that can shift out of the "run." position. That shuts off the engine, eliminates power assist for the steering and brakes and disables airbags.

On April 1 and April 2 U.S. House and Senate subcommittees verbally flogged Barra because she hadn't fired or disciplined anyone. She said she was awaiting results from an internal investigation.

GM's announcement on Thursday said the suspensions were based on an interim briefing on the probe, which is being conducted for GM by former U.S. attorney Anton Valukas.

Separately, GM confirmed it has asked NASA to verify that the recalled cars can safely be driven if drivers use only the key, with nothing attached. Barra, CEO since January, has guaranteed in several forums that the cars are safe if driven with nothing attached to the ignition key, and told Congress she'd let her teenage son do so.

Barra also announced on Thursday what amounts to a safety whistle-blower program for employees. She told a town-hall session with workers that the "Speak Up for Safety" program "will recognize employees who discover and report safety issues to fix problems that could have been found earlier."

GM didn't identify the two suspended engineers, but people familiar with the matter said they are Ray DeGiorgio, the switch engineer for the small cars in the recall, and Gary Altman, the chief development engineer from 2000 to 2005 for the cars. The sources didn't want to be identified because those details haven't been made public. Reporters have been unable to reach either man, and GM declines to make them available.

"It's about time," was the reaction of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who chaired the April 2 Senate grilling of Barra. "Of the many frustrating moments in our hearing last week, an especially surreal one was learning that the GM employee (DeGiorgio) ... hadn't even been suspended."

"This is just the beginning. Although the two employees on leave played a part in GM's safety failure, there are still many unanswered questions about who else was involved. ...We are continuing our investigation," said a joint statement from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa. Murphy's panel interrogated Barra April 1.

The two suspended engineers gave depositions last year in a now-settled civil suit against GM by the estate of Brooke Melton, 29. She was killed in a 2010 Georgia crash in her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt that involved a faulty ignition switch.

A switch problem first was noticed in 2001, GM documents say. Altman said in his June 2013 deposition that he personally had a problem with the ignition switch inadvertently moving out of "run" in 2004, as he was finalizing details for the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt, a new product.

But GM had no fix for the problem, and the launch of the 2005 Cobalt wasn't delayed to find a remedy, which would have been costly to the automaker. GM's financial health at that time was "poor," Barra said as part of her April 2 Senate subcommittee testimony.

Lance Cooper, attorney for Melton's estate, asks Altman if GM "made a business decision not to fix this problem," and the transcript of Altman's deposition shows his reply is, "That is what happened, yes."

In April 2006, DeGiorgio appears to have signed off on a safer, new-design switch, without assigning a new part number as GM protocol would have required. The change wasn't widely known within GM, and the cars with the older switch weren't recalled at the time.

An analysis by trade publication Automotive News says eight lives could have been saved had GM recalled the old-switch cars then.

Asked during his April 2013 deposition if he signed off on a new switch in 2006, DeGiorgio said, "I don't recall ever authorizing such a change."

But a document from the House and Senate subcommittee hearings shows DeGiorgio approving a new switch in April 2006.

"He lied," said an agitated McCaskill at the April 2 Senate hearing.

GM hopes that a review by NASA will provide the credibility the company now lacks on safety issue.

The NASA team first will see if it can verify the claims by Barra and GM engineers that the recalled cars are safe to drive as long as the key is naked. A motion in a lawsuit in Corpus Christi, Texas, has asked a federal judge to order GM to put "Do Not Drive" stickers on all the recalled cars until the switches have been replaced. A hearing was held last week, and the judge has not yet issued a decision.

NASA also would take a broader look at how GM approaches safety issues.

It's not the first time NASA has been asked to become involved with a recall. In 2010, the space agency was asked by the U.S. Transportation Department to investigate whether Toyotas, in addition to the pedal and floor mat issues for which millions of cars were recalled, also might have electronic defects that contributed to incidents of sudden, unintended acceleration. The investigation found no electronic issue that could cause the problem.